Playing card holder, assorting and displaying device



April 17, 1956 c. e. MODONOUGH PLAYING CARD HOLDER, ASSORTING ANDDISPLAYING DEVICE Filed Sept. 13, 1952 INVENTOR. CHfl/FLEJG ff flozwumUnited States Patent This invention relates to a device for holdingplaying cards of individual players, and the general object is tofacilitate the holding arrangement and playing of the cards particularlyin games in which a largenumber of cards are dealt to the players, andin'thecourse of play an individual player may be in possession of aconsiderably larger numberof cardsthan originally dealt. to him Morespecifically, my device is intendodwfor use in supporting, assertingand'arranging and holding the cards of individual players in games usingtwo, three or even more fifty-two card decks in a game for two, three,four ormore players. In such games .one player-may and frequently doeswin and pick up a pack or kitty? of temporary discards, putting theplayer in possession of thirty, fifty or even more cards. It, therefore,becomes very desirable to provide a device into which the cards may betemporarily mounted with their indicia exposed to the player "only, andin which they may be COnVB-.

iently shifted and arranged or assorted into groups, melds, series, orother desired order.- c

,To provide such a device which may be useful and efficient involves theholding of aplur-ality of layers of cards heldby their lower ends, whileexposing the upper ends and in parallel rows with the upper; indiciareadily visible, but only to theproper player.

Mechanical expediency has proved; that certain widths and progressivelylesser depths of holding supports, having ahorizontal bottom andsubstantially parallel SPfiCed apart side walls, should also includeintervening surfaces with an edge curving or sloping downwardly tofacilitate the insertion of the cards. i

It is also desirable that while the device shall not be too long forconvenient handling, it should permit the cards to stand projectingfrom'the ends or to be removed ehdwise as well as vertically.

A device of 'this nature, such as has been proven very satisfactory foruse in'playing a three deck game known as "samba, provides a holderapproximately seven inches long with three parallel holding andsupporting elements, adapted to display one upper corner indicium of asmany as twenty-one cards in'each row, the rows being at relativelydifferent heights, and the cards sloping with relation to the positionof the players, such as to afford convenient simultaneous inspection ofall of the cards a so held.

In the drawings, which show such a preferred, em

bodiment of my invention,

Fig.1 is a. perspective view fthe front and one end of my card-holdinganddisplaying'device, Showing some.

cards nv position therein, the latter being illustrated in.

broken lines; I

Fig. 2 is a similar perspective view of, the back of the same device;and

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section showing cards in P s n n e h ofe ho ding el m n s. and indicating in broken lines the change invertical angle. of card position of a single card, as, compared to themore up;.

right position of a plurality of contiguous cards shown in solid linesand also indicating the angle of vision of,

the middle and rear rows of cards,

It will be seen thata substantially continuous sheet extends from frontto back forming the parallelgsepa;

rated and connecting walls for the holding elements, and

extending downwardly and rearwardly at the back for;

support and stability. End walls may or may not be u ed, as will pr s nly ppe Describing the device by the use of; reference numerals,:

at the fron is an upright, substantially vertical wall porion 1 pr fably ha ng a fo a y p j ing and.

curved e g P r i n ,At the ow r e ge th wal lis integrally connectedwith a horizontal substantially flat; bottom strip 3 from which theintegral upwardly; extending rear wall 4 of the front holding elementextends upwardly to asubstantially equal height withthe upper edge 2 ofthe front wall. At the upper edge the wall 4 is connected with ahorizontal portion 5 extending rearwardly and curved as at; 6 and thendownwardly forming a wall portion 7,-corresponding tothe wall 1 for theI at a square corner with a substantially flat portion ll} ing addedstrength may be considered to contribute to;

Physical and sales problems involve so designing and constructing such adevice that it may be light, sturdy, extremely cheaply manufactured, ofpleasing appearance, as well as the foregoing and other conveniences .gan her fia or h ri on al t p p i n. 15-. I tegral with. the top portion15 may be formed a. rear wall which in ermediate car l i ement having aflat bot om 8 and a vertical wall 9; The wall 9, in turn, is connectedwhich, like the portion 5, is joined by the curve 11 with he wa l p r anwh n turn, gain. co nects with a fiat bottom strip 13 integral withanother back, Wall 14 extending upwardly to a square corner jo in Y forappearance and stability may slope rearwardly.

As shown, the rear Wall is preferably cut away having short end, Port s1, extending o h suppor ing surface and having inwardly curv'ed portions17 leaving a.

substantial open space which has the useful purpose of omitting andthuseconomizing on th plastic material.

End walls 20 mayextend between the walls 4 and 7',

9 n an 14 nd 1. whi h in ad ition to afford:

the-neat. appearance of the device. In any event; wheth r hese nds wallsre used or the vertical hol ing spacesabove each of the. bottom walls,3, 8 and 13 are nease that cards. may heinser ed orremoved end-- wise ormay project outwardly somewhat while intheii'z assorted position, thus,in effect, actually lengthening the row of cards which each holdingspace is capable of receiving.

In use the device is supported essentially on the front bottom holderwall 3, and the lower edges of the rear wall portions 16. If the endwalls 20 are used, their lower edges may also contact the supportingsurface, if desired. a

It will be noted in the drawing that the front holding space above thesupporting strip 3 is deeper than the other two, the middle one abovethe supporting strip 3 being preferably of a height about midway betweenthe still higher strip 13 and the front strip 3. In other words, thedepth of the holding spaces is progressively less from the deepest frontspace to that of the shorter vertical depth of the rear space.

In practice' experience has proven that the depth of the rear spaceshould be about one-fifth of the height supporting strip 8 to permit areasonably short person sitting in an ordinary chair to see over cardsin the middle row and easily read the indicia exposed in the uppercorners of cards in the rear row. The same ratio requires'that thesecond or middle row be correspondingly above the top of the cards inthe front. row supported on the strip 3, and thus to get the proper andimportant relative heights of the cards in the several rows, the frontholding space must be substantially half again as deep as the rearspace.

The angles of the cards in the spaces is, of course, determined by thespace between the substantially vertical walls of the spaces, and,obviously, a single card will stand at a more rearward slope than will agroup of cards, say, five or seven, arranged to expose only the indiciaand forming the thickness of the number in the group.

Thus, in Fig. 3, I have illustrated at C in broken lines the angle of asingle card in the rear holding space, and at C the angle of the singlecard in the middle space, while at C the angle is somewhat less in thedeeper front holding space, the cards being indicated in solid lines ina plurality of more upright groups, designated C. An illustrative angleof sight is indicated in broken line arroWsS in Fig. 3.

A group of cards C is shown in Fig. 1 having indicia I. The height ofthe front wall 1 and its rounded and inwardly curved edge 2 ispreferably even with the tops of the other holding spaces. This adds tothe convenience of placing the cards in the front as Well as the otherspaces with substantially the same kindof motion, and has the addedadvantage of preventing the cards being tipped forwardly inadvertentlywhile sorting or arranging cards in the middle row.

The distance or spacing between the rows of cards is determined by twofactors; namely, the amount of material of which the holder is made mustbe held to a minimum, and it is desirable to make it narrow; second, thedistance between the rows should be sufficient only to permit easyinsertion of the fingers between the rows of cards. Thus, all of therows may be close to the player and not likely to be disclosed toopponents.

In actual practice I have found the most useful and convenient spacingand dimension to be approximately as follows:

The holding spaces are preferably less than an inch apart, center tocenter, allowing five-eighths to threefourths of an inch of finger spacebetween the rows as the cards stand in the spaces.

The height of the front space is preferably slightly less than one andone-quarter inches. The depth of the second and third spaces may beapproximately one inch and three-quarters to seven-eighths of an inch,respectively.

For convenience in molding the walls of the respective holding spacesshould flare slightly, and the width at the bottom of the holding spacesmay be about five-thirtyseconds of an inch. The width of the shallowerrear holding space is preferably one-thirty-second of an inch narrowerat the top than the other two spaces.

The length of the device is preferably approximately seven inches,which, as stated, may hold twenty-one cards withtheir indicia readilyvisible, although the cards may then project slightly from either end ofthe holding space. a

These dimensions, of course, are illustrative only, and may be variedslightly While attaining the results and objectives stated.

For further economy of the expensive thermo-plastic material, openings(indicated at 25 in broken lines) may be formed in the horizontalsurfaces, and the walls are, of course, made as thin as is possibleconsistent with the required strength.

There may be any number of such openings, but their formation should besuch as not to permit entry of the cards and thus interfere with slidingthe edges of the cards toward the receiving space.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim is:

A card-holding device of the character described, comprising a unitaryrigid thin sheetshaped to form three vertical card supporting spaces,each space-forming portion comprising a flat narrow bottom strip andsubstantially parallel slightly diverging upright walls connectedbetween the first and second and the second and third card-holding spaceby substantially fiat surfaces, and the sheet being extended beyond therearmost card-holding Wall surface and downwardly to form a supportpositioning the bottom strips of the several card-holding spaces atprogressively different heights, the substantially flat surface portionsbeing curved to meet an upright wall and on a radius substantially equalin Width to that of the card-holding space, the walls of the frontcard-holding space being approximately one and one-quarter inches deep,the walls of the second card-holding space being approximately one inchor slightly more in height, and the walls of the rearmost card-holdingspace being approximately seven-eighths of an inch or more in height,and the width of the bottom strips of all the spaces being approximatelyfive-thirty-seconds of an inch, while the walls forming the rearmostshallow space are slightly closer together at the top than thecorresponding walls forming the other spaces, and the card-holdingspaces are substantially three-quarters of an inch apart.

References Cited in the file of this patent I UNITED STATES PATENTSTrollen Feb. 22,

